A geographical dictionary providing reference information about places and place names in Warminster and other civil parishes in the surrounding area.
– From Wiltshire County Council 100, The First Hundred Years 1889-1989:
Another legacy of the [Second World] war was the Civil Defence Corps which was kept in being until 1968. Civil defence was then put on a care and maintenance basis, and a policy was introduced of providing training for the public at householder and community level to enable future wartime conditions to be coped with.
Wednesday 4th May 1988
The book Remember Warminster, Volume Two, edited by Danny Howell, published by Bedeguar Books, October 1994, includes the edited transcript of a tape-recorded interview Danny Howell made with Albert Elloway (born 19th May 1907 – died 4th January 1994).
In that interview, Albert Elloway said:
“When I was about 18 months old, a babe in arms, my family left Lower Bread Street and moved to 37a Chapel Street. Actually, it was a lane off Chapel Street, called Trowese Lane or Shovese Lane. Some people called it Trowbridge Lane. It wasn’t signposted and don’t ask me where the name Trowbridge Lane comes from. Us locals knew it as Trowese Lane.”
“Trowese Lane connected Chapel Street with the allotments [the Tynings Allotments] at the top. We lived in one of two houses at the top of the lane. The lane petered out at the allotments, about 20 yards past the houses. Those two houses are still there. I’ll tell you who used to have them – Ted Gooch. He lives up Portway now.”
“I lived at Trowese Lane with my family until I was 14 or 15. The owner of the cottages when we lived there was Oliver Cundick, the baker. When we moved out, Bert Turner, I think his name was Bert, moved into there. He was a relation of Cundick’s. We moved from Trowbridge Lane to Lyme Avenue in the early 1920s, about 1923.”
Reg Cundick and Danny Howell, writing about The Royal Oak public house, at Chain Street, Warminster, in the book The Inns & Taverns Of Warminster, published in November 1987, stated:
Both Daniell and Halliday listed this inn. Halliday gave the latest date for it as 1740. It had certainly ceased to operate by the time of the 1801 Survey Of Warminster, when it was recorded as “the late Royal Oak, Chain Street.” It was then a private house occupied by W. Randall.
The houses on the north side of Chain Street were demolished when George Street was constructed and the road widened in 1807.
Reg Cundick and Danny Howell, writing about The Roebuck public house, in the book The Inns & Taverns Of Warminster, published in November 1987, stated:
The Roebuck is recorded by both Daniell and Halliday. The latter says it was in existence in 1740 at Chain Street [now George Street]. Halliday also records that, in about 1830, it was known as The White Hart.
Reg Cundick and Danny Howell, writing about The Ring Of Bells public house, in the book The Inns & Taverns Of Warminster, published in November 1987, stated:
According to Halliday, this inn was at Chain Street (an area on the south side of today’s George Street). There is no mention of the Ring Of Bells in the 1801 Survey Of Warminster; it had obviously closed some time before.
Reg Cundick and Danny Howell in the book The Inns And Taverns Of Warminster, published in November 1987, stated:
The Hatchet
We are all familiar in Warminster with the General Post Office [address: 71 Market Place] on the corner of East Street and Station Road. This was formerly the Somerset and Wilts Savings Bank, built in 1852 on the site of the Hatchet Inn. The latter had been destroyed in a fire in 1789, having stood there since the 16th century. This part of Warminster was, for many years, known as Hatchet Corner.
Prior to the Second World War years, as you entered Lower Marsh, Warminster, from Bell Hill, about 250 yards on the left hand side, in a dip, were four or five houses known as “The Barracks” but the reason for this terminology appears to be forgotten.
On the south side of Warminster Common, to the west of the road to Crockerton, not far from the houses at the top of Deverill Road, was a place called Duckses Cave. This was a dug-out in a bank. It no longer exists [in 1987], and now forms part of the right-of-way footpath which connects Bore Hill with Bradley Road (near Bradley Close).
A field called Parson’s Piece, at the top of South Street, Warminster Common, was divided up into allotments (prior to the Second World War).
Local people colloquially corrupted the name as “Parson’s Piss”.
A note made by Danny Howell in 1987:
A lane called Druck [with no street name sign] connected Hillwood with Lower Marsh Road, on the south side of Warminster. Druck is an old Wiltshire word, in use prior to 1924, to describe any narrow lane.
